'arabesques' though it could by no means be described as political in the narrowest sense, succeeds in conveying something of the inner reality of the palestinian experience. The story, which is largely autobiographical, weaves backwards and forwards through time but returns always to the tiny north galilean village of fasuta, hard by the lebanese border. Events are largely seen through the eyes of a christian arab girl who marries a famous muslim rebel in the anti-british revolt of the 1930s. After her husband dies in the sabra refugee camp near beirut, israeli soldiers search the village with the same kind of brutality displayed by british soldiers half a century earlier. Yet the novel is not written in an entirely realistic mode: its interplay of myth and realism has led many critics and readers to compare shammas with marquez. 2/3/88--1500x246px$11.95(2000x204p). 216x135mm.272pp.offset.delay 4/89. (20/4/88). UK YES